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Monday, December 14, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Wealth Wisdom
Monday, October 5, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
My Heart is Full
...who can live except Yahweh has ordained it?Pagan Prophet in Numbers 24:23
Good morning, Father. It's 7 o'clock in the morning. The past 2 ½ days have been emotionally exhilarating. Elijah Michael Priestley was ushered into life on the outside two days ago at 2:07 PM. He weighed 5 lbs., 14 oz. and measured 20 in. And he is altogether adorable. Father, at the moment of his appearing, I was once again overtaken by the unlimited depths of your creativity, marvelous design, and fathomless faithfulness.
God, sitting here keeping watch over him as he sleeps in his hospital bassinet as well as Elizabeth as she sleeps in her bed, I’m overwhelmed with the goodness of your gifts. This new sensation of caring intensely for the well-being, righteousness, happiness, and safety of two people instead of one is something entirely new to me.
Thank you for new life. Thank you for ordaining the development of these bright colorful eyes, tiny fingernails, and skillful lungs. Thank you for the blessing of togetherness throughout the duration of delivery, and please, please comfort and encourage those young women who were obviously laboring alone that night across the hall. If the fathers are elsewhere, please consume them with conviction and motivation for being with their children throughout the rest of their lives.
Enable Elizabeth and me through your awesome wisdom to take advantage of every God-moment and opportunity to show your glory and greatness to Elijah. May no single second pass by when we are not revealing to Him the security, joy, and awe of trusting in his Abba, and the passionate pursuit of people who do not yet trust you. I look forward with anticipation to the days when Elijah considers whether or not he will also become a Jesus Follower. May we remove all obstacles that would stand in his way, and may he be targeted by your Holy Spirit with sovereign grace.
So this is daddyhood. My heart is full.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Covenant: How God Relates to His People
Deuteronomy 26:15-29:1
Covenant: How God Relates to His People
Feel free to download this MP3 and distribute at will. However, please do not edit it in any way.
Covenant: How God Relates to His People
Feel free to download this MP3 and distribute at will. However, please do not edit it in any way.
Monday, March 23, 2009
What God Thinks about Wallets & Purses
Deuteronomy 14:22-15:23
[Note: There is about a 25 second period of silence before the audio engages on this file.]
To download the MP3 for free, click on the hyperlink to my ESnips account above.
[Note: There is about a 25 second period of silence before the audio engages on this file.]
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To download the MP3 for free, click on the hyperlink to my ESnips account above.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Boundaries
Do not move an ancient boundary stone
Set up by your forefathers. Proverbs 22:28
The boundary stone described here was a marker for setting limits for farming or grazing because it represented where one person’s or one tribe’s land ended and another one began. Why would someone move a boundary stone? They would be underhandedly taking from their neighbors (or literally their fellow brothers) and adding to their wealth. It would be the equivalent of moving someone’s saved parking spot in a Chicago winter so that you can take their spot. More importantly, it’s addressing the secret desire to take something while no one is looking and won’t miss it, and adding it your own possession. Tipping the scales in your favor. Taking stuff. Taking money. Taking time. Giving to self while no one can catch you. And specifically, the outcome in this passage is not just a one time action, but leads to continuous favor on your part because once a boundary stone has been moved, it’s unlikely anyone is going to realize that it has been moved, so you will continue to reap the rewards of the dirty deed. It’s sinister and selfish. It’s underhanded and continuous. With time, no one will ever be able to catch you because they won’t remember where the boundary is truly supposed to sit.
This is equivalent to breaking your parents’ password protection on the computer and allowing your free access to any information they do not want you to have. It would be changing the settings at work on the computer so that you can surf the Internet even though you are not supposed to. It would be finding a secret way of making the soda machine give you two cans instead of one. Or taking two newspapers instead of one. Or maybe even lying about your age so that you can get certain privileges (free meal for your kid when he doesn’t actually qualify, going to a movie that you are supposed to be banned from, etc.).
Father, forgive me for living for self. Forgive me for worshipping myself so much so that I actually believe that all rules and boundaries can and should be changed in my favor. Forgive me for thinking I’m right because I can or have done it. Forgive me for thinking that the person I’m stealing from or manipulating is just too sensitive or touchy or selfish themselves when they call me out on it. Forgive me for moving the boundaries of time so that areas of life like work or play override other areas like time with you or time with Elizabeth. In effect, I have stolen from you and Elizabeth when I allow this to happen. Help me to see my own selfish ambition when an opportunity arises to secretly move a boundary or a rule in my favor to add to my pleasure or possession at another’s expense. Grant me your sight and your wisdom, and soften my heart when the conviction comes. And if I move the boundary, make my life miserable until I put it back.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Bed Snatching & Contentment
Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge
Or puts up security for debts;
If you lack the means to pay,
Your very bed will be snatched from under you. Proverbs 22:26-27
This doesn’t appear to be referring to just any contract or agreement, but to those in which someone places their house up for collateral. If hard times come, and you are unable to meet the payments, you lose your bed right out from under you and become homeless. This is proving true across our nation right now, Father. I wish I could have shared this simple concept with the growing mass of people who have lost their homes this past year. Some are in their predicament due to rising unemployment, for which no one can plan. But many others are losing their beds from under them because they did not have the means to pay even when they made their pledge to pay for it. I would think a man would not “strike his hand in a pledge” (sign a contract) or “put up security for debts” (put up his home as collateral) unless his desire for something was so great that it was perceived as a “need” that he cannot go without.
God, make me acutely aware of my ambition to possess things. To possess stuff. Help me to see through the false lies my heart sometimes speaks regarding what I “need” or even “want,” if I do not have the means to sustain the cost.
I believe herein lies an additional layer of “me” which I desperately need you to help me remove, Father. It is the western belief that if I do not have certain luxuries, I am poor, and to be poor is an epidemic with which I cannot live. And so, in the flight to not be poor or “without,” I make deals, pledges, or contracts with creditors. I place my bed on the line for the niceties of cell phones, Internet, or another cool pair of jeans to hang in my closet 5 days out of the week.
Father, thank you that I am not currently in debt. Thank you for saving me from the cultural trappings of living on plastic and believing in this twisted equation of buy now, pay later. But work on my heart’s expectations. I have no debt. And yet I have so much stuff. Free me from the love of stuff, and overwhelm me with a love for people. Convince me that my stuff is worthless. Mud pies, as C.S. Lewis would say. The clothes and electronic gadgets and furniture and carpet and running water and air conditioning and car. They are all luxuries. If you took them, would I still think that you are God enough? Or would I sadly cling to my lost stuff?
Father, please be my all.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Power: Where Our Deficit & God's Sufficiency Meet
Deuteronomy 2:24-3:20
My thanks to Outreach.com for the free Fireproof media clip.
To download the M4A for free, click on the hyperlink to my ESnips account above.
My thanks to Outreach.com for the free Fireproof media clip.
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| Power: Where Our D... |
| Hosted by eSnips |
To download the M4A for free, click on the hyperlink to my ESnips account above.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Robbery
Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them. (Proverbs 22:22-23, ESV)
This is the first of Solomon’s 30 wise “sayings” which he has given for true and reliable counsel. My first thought after reading this is “Why would someone need to be told to not take advantage of the poor?” Perhaps our first instinct is to get what we can gain with the least amount of effort. And those who fall into the category of “poor,” or literally “lower ones,” are good, marketable targets. These are the lower class of Israel, those who do not have lawyers because they can’t afford them, and are weak from a social and economical standpoint. Robbing or oppressing them is easy. Who’s going to come to their aid and keep us from getting what we want? The “gate” is the place of business and law. It’s the central activity point for the city. This is talking about taking someone to court to take advantage of them because they are not well represented. But the attorney who rises up to the victory of the poor is Yahweh Himself.
So, God, it appears that it is possible to proceed with court cases or issues of legality which are perfectly acceptable from a standpoint of law, but completely unacceptable in your sight due to issues of justice and inequality. And Solomon is pointing out that it is very unwise to make business or personal decisions according to whether or not you will gain from them without considering the just/unjust outcome, and who might be exploited as a result.
Father, I am guilty of this lack of wisdom. I think purely in terms of numbers, and not in terms of people. I’m much happier when the issue is resolved according to law and not according to fairness. It’s so much more difficult, and requires so much more time and thought when issues of fairness and justice must be considered, and not merely the law. I’ve been known to think, “Don’t trifle with the details of who will get hurt or who is at a disadvantage; simply deal out the law.” After all, there’s no such thing as a “disadvantage” in this country, right? All is fair in America.
God forgive us, as a culture and a nation, for being quick to identify those situations in which we can sue, exploit, or take advantage of a weaker person in order to walk off with extra money in the bank. We are quick to set our targets on the easy kills. Corporations who sue small businesses for trifle reasons come to mind immediately. Also local governments evicting the elderly and poor from their homes without grace appears to fall here. And what about a white, middle-class, red-blooded American taking advantage of his Mexican-American neighbor’s lack of English skills for personal gain?
Yahweh, will rob souls.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Soul Craving
[The following was written in response to Dustin Williams' Facebook Note "loneliness."]
I have to admit that I am not the poster child for loneliness. I’m one of those introverts who actually has to work at being a people person, and derives great pleasure from spending time immersed in books, thoughts, and reflection. But I don’t believe anyone, introvert or not, is exempt from the silent pain of feeling forsaken and forgotten even in the midst of crowds of people.
Probably my worst experience with loneliness came when I moved to Chicago to begin studying at seminary in a new urban environment while leaving behind a fiancée to finish her degree in West Virginia. This translated into 500 miles of separation between my best friend and soon-to-be wife for practically the entire duration of our engagement—one very troubling year. So while Elizabeth planned the wedding, and clung to my weekly phone calls, I tried to bury myself in my studies and hide from the horrific volume of husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend couples which surrounded me.
I remember sinking into a semi-depressive funk during a weekend retreat in Wisconsin. The seminary required this beginning of the year retreat for all students to spend time at a camp, getting to know one another, growing in community, and preparing our minds for the smorgasbord of life-altering learning in the semester to come. In one sense, every conversation with others during that first retreat ignited a flame within me as I realized how much of God they had and how little of Him I possessed; however, the funk crept in as I also realized how much of each other they enjoyed (husbands with wives, friends with friends), and I stood longing on the outside for my best friend to be with me. The idiocy of it all stunned me. How can you be so happy and so perplexingly dismal at the same time? I was on a spiritual high and low simultaneously. I wish I could say that I grew in the midst of it and walked away a changed person, but that did not come until much later. I walked away from the spiritual high, transformed and ever growing in my appreciation for people who are in love with Jesus as well as a love for Jesus Himself. However, I also walked away sulky, continuing to wallow in loneliness.
Since then, I’ve come to learn a few things about loneliness. I’ve shared a little bit of what I’ve learned below.
There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being alone is the very first thing in the history of our planet that God has ever referred to as “not good.” I mean, He speaks galaxies and DNA into existence, creates photons, neurons, and protons, whips out sea anemones, cactuses, Palominos, and bald eagles, and looks around and says, “this is good!” Then He scoops together some dust, and forms a guy, and looks at everything He has created and says, “this is very good!” But when the Creator of the universe takes a look at this guy in his private little world of me, myself, and I, He says, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). So He basically creates the first community and first marriage and first “we,” by putting His best work into a counterpart, a helper, a support, a female to complement and be with the guy, to eliminate the badness of being alone, and create the wonder of togetherness. Being together is good! Being alone is not!
But there is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being alone is bad. We introverts can do it for a little bit, but long extended periods of time of being alone is inhuman. It’s wrong. It’s bad. It’s not healthy. God sees being alone as an incomplete human experience. We need each other.
However, you can be lonely even when people are around, and that’s what I felt when I was immersed in biblical community in Wisconsin while Elizabeth was 500 miles away. Loneliness can stretch even deeper than this. Even now with Elizabeth by my side every single day as my wife, it is possible for loneliness to rear its ugly head. Loneliness is different than being alone.
I believe loneliness is a tool God uses to make us realize a need. It’s like any other pain; it’s an indicator that something in the world (or our bodies) is not right and needs to be made better. Band-aids and Advils will not do the trick. They’ll just mask the problem. Loneliness is like the little indicator light on your dash that you ignore because you don’t understand the acronym (what does check “EGR” mean??), and your car’s manual is buried somewhere in the glove compartment underneath a ton of other documents and junk which you never consult. So you put tape over the little LED display and hope it fixes whatever root problem is buried beneath the hood of the car.
Loneliness is a craving for fellowship of the soul. To know and be known on the deepest and most transparent of levels. And in spite of the claims of millions of ballads and love songs, companionship with another human being will not satisfy this craving. I love my wife. She is the most satisfying woman and companion to have ever graced this earth, but she cannot and will not ever satisfy the craving. Someone once described the craving like this: “Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.” Then the writer described the soul satisfaction he longed for: “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:4-9).
For those of you who have been trapped in churchianity for over a decade, this is not the proverbial “Sunday School answer.” I have not really begun to grasp the craving of the soul and the satisfaction of God until only recently, and I believe it is far more relevant to our loneliness than those who have been gorged on pat answers might think.
How often have you stared loneliness, not aloneness, but loneliness, in the face, and actually begged God from the depths of your heart to satisfy your longing? I can’t say that I have always believed God could satisfy such a craving early in my relationship with Him. He was just a Savior who gave me a Heaven; not a glorious soul satisfaction to treasure.
"Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins." (Psalm 25:16-18)
My God was too little and too trite. Similar to something you might pick up at the dollar store or the clearance rack, He wasn’t something to get excited about. And so when the craving made itself known, I was not quick to run to Him for satisfaction.
“My spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Answer me quickly, O Lord! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul." (David, Psalm 143:4-8)
Quite honestly, I do not think I was believing in the same God as David. Somewhere in my walk; however, the truth of God’s value and worth not only to my eternal destiny but to my soul’s satisfaction and present reality began to dawn, and though I can’t say I fully treasure Him for His worth now, I do now see that He can fully satisfy the soul craving.
One guy put it this way: “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me" (Jesus, John 16:32). I’m pretty certain that He, the creator of companionship, had the loneliness thing figured out. And yet, Jesus, the God-man, also experienced the ravages of the craving. “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me...My God, my God, why have you forsaken me [left me alone]?!” (Matthew 26:38; 27:46) He knew the reality of the craving, and He also knew the remedy, the soul satisfaction. He cried out to the source of the satisfaction, but God had left Jesus alone due to our sin being placed on Him at the cross. The man felt true loneliness.
It’s interesting to see what Jesus might have said if he’d had the strength to continue quoting Psalm 22 when He was on the cross. Try reading through it at the bottom of this post, especially if you are currently experiencing the craving. Note who the psalmist is crying out to for fulfillment and soul satisfaction and release from the turmoil of heart.
Loneliness is a craving for fellowship of the soul. And the Creator God is big and good enough to satisfy it. Churchy catch-phrases will not satisfy; nor will the companionship of another. You can’t get the soul satisfaction from anyone or anything other than the One who is infinitely good and satisfying.
----------------------
I have to admit that I am not the poster child for loneliness. I’m one of those introverts who actually has to work at being a people person, and derives great pleasure from spending time immersed in books, thoughts, and reflection. But I don’t believe anyone, introvert or not, is exempt from the silent pain of feeling forsaken and forgotten even in the midst of crowds of people.
Probably my worst experience with loneliness came when I moved to Chicago to begin studying at seminary in a new urban environment while leaving behind a fiancée to finish her degree in West Virginia. This translated into 500 miles of separation between my best friend and soon-to-be wife for practically the entire duration of our engagement—one very troubling year. So while Elizabeth planned the wedding, and clung to my weekly phone calls, I tried to bury myself in my studies and hide from the horrific volume of husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend couples which surrounded me.
I remember sinking into a semi-depressive funk during a weekend retreat in Wisconsin. The seminary required this beginning of the year retreat for all students to spend time at a camp, getting to know one another, growing in community, and preparing our minds for the smorgasbord of life-altering learning in the semester to come. In one sense, every conversation with others during that first retreat ignited a flame within me as I realized how much of God they had and how little of Him I possessed; however, the funk crept in as I also realized how much of each other they enjoyed (husbands with wives, friends with friends), and I stood longing on the outside for my best friend to be with me. The idiocy of it all stunned me. How can you be so happy and so perplexingly dismal at the same time? I was on a spiritual high and low simultaneously. I wish I could say that I grew in the midst of it and walked away a changed person, but that did not come until much later. I walked away from the spiritual high, transformed and ever growing in my appreciation for people who are in love with Jesus as well as a love for Jesus Himself. However, I also walked away sulky, continuing to wallow in loneliness.
Since then, I’ve come to learn a few things about loneliness. I’ve shared a little bit of what I’ve learned below.
There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being alone is the very first thing in the history of our planet that God has ever referred to as “not good.” I mean, He speaks galaxies and DNA into existence, creates photons, neurons, and protons, whips out sea anemones, cactuses, Palominos, and bald eagles, and looks around and says, “this is good!” Then He scoops together some dust, and forms a guy, and looks at everything He has created and says, “this is very good!” But when the Creator of the universe takes a look at this guy in his private little world of me, myself, and I, He says, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). So He basically creates the first community and first marriage and first “we,” by putting His best work into a counterpart, a helper, a support, a female to complement and be with the guy, to eliminate the badness of being alone, and create the wonder of togetherness. Being together is good! Being alone is not!
But there is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being alone is bad. We introverts can do it for a little bit, but long extended periods of time of being alone is inhuman. It’s wrong. It’s bad. It’s not healthy. God sees being alone as an incomplete human experience. We need each other.
However, you can be lonely even when people are around, and that’s what I felt when I was immersed in biblical community in Wisconsin while Elizabeth was 500 miles away. Loneliness can stretch even deeper than this. Even now with Elizabeth by my side every single day as my wife, it is possible for loneliness to rear its ugly head. Loneliness is different than being alone.
I believe loneliness is a tool God uses to make us realize a need. It’s like any other pain; it’s an indicator that something in the world (or our bodies) is not right and needs to be made better. Band-aids and Advils will not do the trick. They’ll just mask the problem. Loneliness is like the little indicator light on your dash that you ignore because you don’t understand the acronym (what does check “EGR” mean??), and your car’s manual is buried somewhere in the glove compartment underneath a ton of other documents and junk which you never consult. So you put tape over the little LED display and hope it fixes whatever root problem is buried beneath the hood of the car.
Loneliness is a craving for fellowship of the soul. To know and be known on the deepest and most transparent of levels. And in spite of the claims of millions of ballads and love songs, companionship with another human being will not satisfy this craving. I love my wife. She is the most satisfying woman and companion to have ever graced this earth, but she cannot and will not ever satisfy the craving. Someone once described the craving like this: “Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.” Then the writer described the soul satisfaction he longed for: “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:4-9).
For those of you who have been trapped in churchianity for over a decade, this is not the proverbial “Sunday School answer.” I have not really begun to grasp the craving of the soul and the satisfaction of God until only recently, and I believe it is far more relevant to our loneliness than those who have been gorged on pat answers might think.
How often have you stared loneliness, not aloneness, but loneliness, in the face, and actually begged God from the depths of your heart to satisfy your longing? I can’t say that I have always believed God could satisfy such a craving early in my relationship with Him. He was just a Savior who gave me a Heaven; not a glorious soul satisfaction to treasure.
"Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins." (Psalm 25:16-18)
My God was too little and too trite. Similar to something you might pick up at the dollar store or the clearance rack, He wasn’t something to get excited about. And so when the craving made itself known, I was not quick to run to Him for satisfaction.
“My spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Answer me quickly, O Lord! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul." (David, Psalm 143:4-8)
Quite honestly, I do not think I was believing in the same God as David. Somewhere in my walk; however, the truth of God’s value and worth not only to my eternal destiny but to my soul’s satisfaction and present reality began to dawn, and though I can’t say I fully treasure Him for His worth now, I do now see that He can fully satisfy the soul craving.
One guy put it this way: “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me" (Jesus, John 16:32). I’m pretty certain that He, the creator of companionship, had the loneliness thing figured out. And yet, Jesus, the God-man, also experienced the ravages of the craving. “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me...My God, my God, why have you forsaken me [left me alone]?!” (Matthew 26:38; 27:46) He knew the reality of the craving, and He also knew the remedy, the soul satisfaction. He cried out to the source of the satisfaction, but God had left Jesus alone due to our sin being placed on Him at the cross. The man felt true loneliness.
It’s interesting to see what Jesus might have said if he’d had the strength to continue quoting Psalm 22 when He was on the cross. Try reading through it at the bottom of this post, especially if you are currently experiencing the craving. Note who the psalmist is crying out to for fulfillment and soul satisfaction and release from the turmoil of heart.
Loneliness is a craving for fellowship of the soul. And the Creator God is big and good enough to satisfy it. Churchy catch-phrases will not satisfy; nor will the companionship of another. You can’t get the soul satisfaction from anyone or anything other than the One who is infinitely good and satisfying.
----------------------
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it." (Psalm 22)
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